Overscheduling as a Jewish Issue

As Education Director at Congregation Solel, I frequently confront a question that many of our parents ask daily, “Are our kids overscheduled?” The implications of the answer are serious for Jewish education, and, more importantly, for our children, but the questions we ask will have a lot to do with the answers we receive.
In Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon writes, “If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers (P. 251). This seems to be part of the problem with the research, in general, and over scheduling, specifically; depending on the questions we ask, we get different answers.
In a recent article in The Washington Post (September 28, 2008), two new studies claimed that “organized activities are linked to positive outcomes in school, emotional development, family life and behavior…” and that, “children most at risk have no activities at all.” Of course, this says very little about the social and economic status of the families of the children in question, which leads me to ask, would we see positive outcomes in “school, emotional development, family life and behavior” if these children were not overscheduled?
The authors of the recent studies, it was reported in the Post, "started out with a pretty solid belief that lots and lots of activities are bad for children." according to Sandra Hofferth, director of the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland at College Park. Their research found the opposite. Hofferth’s study did not link depression, anxiety, alienation and fearfulness to overscheduling.
Earlier research by William Doherty, a University of Minnesota professor, asserts something completely different. He says that "Kids don't get enough sleep; they don't get enough downtime to be creative and thoughtful; they don't have enough hangout time," Doherty, based on his conclusions, has organized parent initiatives against overscheduling.
As we can see from these studies, the answers we gather are based on the questions we ask. And sometimes, when we need an answer to fit our perspective, we are willing to alter the question to get the right conclusion.
What does this mean, the right conclusion? There is a psychological theory called cognitive dissonance which states that human beings are not capable of having concurrent dissonant cognitions. If we know it is a sunny day, we cannot also know it is a rainy day at the same time, in the same place. If we learn that our kids are overscheduled, then we will need to do one of three things; accept the situation and deal with it, reject the learning and believe that we are doing just fine by our kids, or we can make a change in our kids’ schedules.
I would like to propose that we have at least one more option. Before accepting any of these conclusions about overscheduling, let’s examine what might be wrong. In her study, Ms. Hofferth looked at behavior and Mr. Doherty looked at unscheduled time. I believe that we are being asked to accept the wrong or limited questions. When I read Ms. Hofferth’s conclusions, I can understand why we would want our children in organized activities. These are times when our kids can try things we could never teach them and they spend time with professionals dedicated to their field. Two of my kids study karate and the other learns to dance. Both are experiences I could never give my children and both are brought to them by experts in their fields. What could possibly be bad about that except for the concern Mr. Doherty has that it leaves little time for unstructured creativity, rest and socializing—other things I am glad to give to my kids.
But the problem with hanging our hats on either of these conclusions is that they are not comprehensive. And this is where we come back to Judaism and the role of the Religious School at Solel. In Judaism, we don’t ask only questions about our well-being. Our sage Hillel famously said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I?”
The fourth option available to Jews when caught in an epistemic crisis, a place where what we know is in conflict with new information, is to ask the big questions. Maybe there is something I do not understand here? What might a God’s eye view of this picture look like?
When I confront the research about overscheduling, I want to know the effect on my child. But I want to look at this broadly; not just about stress or sleep or positive outcomes. Whether I decide to limit my child’s activity or I decide to fill the schedule, the most important question on my mind is what kind of human being will I be creating. Of course, I want a physically fit, happy child with great self-esteem, but I also want a child who knows the importance of being a good person, giving tzedakah, treating others with respect and walking in the ways of our Torah.
The problem with the current research about over scheduling is not a problem of the researchers. It is a problem with the larger society. These studies reflect what we want to know about the scheduling of our children’s time. I think we should ask more of ourselves. Now that we’ve examined the subject, let’s find out the value of hierarchies in our scheduling. What happens to the moral fiber of a child when travel soccer is equal to religious school? What happens when paying for tutors is more important than giving tzedakah?
These are questions that really matter and as Jews we have the fourth option. Let’s use it right and fulfill the vision of scripture that we should be a light unto the nations and fill our role as a holy people. By doing this, we can lead the charge as we broaden the questions we ask and raise the bar for ourselves as parents and as human beings.