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Rabbi Yossi Kenigsberg is the principal of Mesivta Yesodei Yisroel in Elkins Park Pennsylvania, a fledgling but vibrant High school that is part of the vast network of educational institutions under the Touro umbrella.Rabbi Kenigsberg is an educator with almost four decades of experience and has served as a principal in Torah Day schools and Yeshivos for over a quarter of a century.Along with being a supervisor for the renowned nationwide Catapult Learning where he has been intensively involved with summer enrichment learning for inner city children, he routinely consults in cases of severe learning disabilities as a licensed Wilson dyslexia practitioner.Rabbi Kenigsberg received an M.A in Mental Health Counseling in 2008.He joins his friend of over forty years,Avraham Kivelevitz, to discuss one of the most pressing endemic problems that plagues the Yeshivish school system.It is not the dearth of essential reading and writing skills in the curriculum that was the focus of New York Cityinvestigators splashed in the headlines last year .(See the important corrective article on those points by Moshe Krakowski here)The actual scandalous open secret is the incredible dropout rate of teachers assigned to those programs, and the rampantchutzpah evinced by the Talmidim, to the Jewish and Gentile instructors.The Hanhalah of the Yeshivos routinely issue stern warnings to the children, exhorting the school population toexhibit "midos tovos" and respect the qualified educators.The children are lectured to understand the importance that lays in their future by mastering the subjects being taught, yet to little avail.Rabbis Kenigsberg and Kivelevitz are both seasoned veterans of these programs and carry the memory of the apathy andabuse issuing from students,oft times coupled with incompetent administrative micromanagement that places small band -aids on large festering wounds.In his new position, Rabbi Kenigsberg has been able to implement an effective program, staffed with seasoned professionals that have earned a respect bordering on reverence from the 25 young men that comprise the present enrollment of the school.Unlike other right wing Yeshivos that have limited teleconferencing partner learning and instruction to Limudei Kodesh,( see here for On Principle's interview with a principal that explains their rationale) Yesodei Yisroel's eager student body hasno qualms in handling real-time interactive instruction throughout the three hours of the afternoon time allotted for core subjects and is arguably thriving even in the midst of the Corona lock down.Kenigsberg ascribes the success to the wonderful relationship he has with the Menahel on site, and the guidancethat organically stems from the other "Yesodei" high schools inTouro's stable:Yesodei Yeshurun in Queens, and YesodeiHaTorah in Connecticut.On one level, these schools are being developed as feeder schools for Yeshivas Ohr Ha Chaim and Landers College forMen.More significantly, through its careful hiring and creation of an environment of transparent communication,Touro seems to have found the recipe for staff pride and satisfaction.Bernard Lander's success in bringing far flung colleges under one banner, has resulted in the ability of these preparatoryschools to offer compensation commensurate with the skills of the instructors.Staff retention is widely accepted as the single mostimportant element for providing stability.Successive classes will graduate and matriculate to higher education and leave the Yeshiva High schools with an outlook towards math, science, history and English language that is unapologetically positive.Rabbi Kivelevitz speculates that unlike its larger rival,Yeshiva University, Touro doesn't have to defend a Torah U Maadaphilosophy which has caused frequent rifts between representatives of each wing.Unburdened by the shambling labyrinth-like make up of YU,where mixed messages are received by the college students regarding the primacy of Torah learning and a Rabbinic career,bochurim whohave gone through the Yesodei-Ohr Ha Chaim-Landers system understand the choices in front of them, and are groomed to enter the professional workforce as good citizens, and authentic Bnei Torah.Please leave us a review or email us at ravkiv@gmail.comFor more information on this podcast visityeshivaofnewark.jewishpodcasts.org See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. This podcast has been graciously sponsored by JewishPodcasts.fm. There is much overhead to maintain this service so please help us continue our goal of helping Jewish lecturers become podcasters and support us with a donation: https://thechesedfund.com/jewishpodcasts/donate