The Missing Subject In Education

“The future shaliach may need to understand a profit and loss statement, taxes, and cash flow. The future business owner needs to understand morality, ethics, honor, and duty. We sometimes act as though these worlds are separate, but in reality they strengthen one another.”

Ask parents what young men need today and the answers usually come quickly.

Strong Torah learning.

Technology skills.

Business and financial literacy.

Communication.

Practical tools for the real world.

Direction and purpose.

All of those matter.

Yet beneath these conversations may sit another question that receives less attention…How does a young person learn to love learning itself?

Because many young people today are not lacking intelligence.  Quite the opposite.

Many are thoughtful, insightful, creative, and capable of remarkable things. Yet parents and educators increasingly observe something else as well. Many students have become disconnected from learning itself.

Not incapable of learning.

Disconnected from it.

Some become overwhelmed by distraction. Some quietly fear failure. Others begin viewing school as something to survive rather than something to enjoy. Learning gradually becomes associated with pressure, comparison, and outcomes rather than curiosity and discovery.

And when curiosity fades, even the brightest students can begin to disengage.

At JETS, these questions have increasingly shaped conversations among faculty and leadership. Although JETS is often known for professional studies and practical skills, it is first and foremost a yeshivah. Torah learning and spiritual growth remain central to the identity of the school.

But over time, an interesting realization began emerging.  While traditional yeshiva learning remains powerful and essential, some students flourish when Torah learning and practical learning strengthen one another rather than existing in separate worlds.

Rabbi Boruch Sufrin recently shared an observation that captures this idea well:

“The future shaliach may need to understand a profit and loss statement, taxes, and cash flow. The future business owner needs to understand morality, ethics, honor, and duty. We sometimes act as though these worlds are separate, but in reality they strengthen one another.”

There is something powerful in that perspective.  Torah learning develops discipline, purpose, critical thinking, and values.  Professional studies provide practical tools that allow those values to become action.

Neither exists in isolation.

Over the past year, another idea began emerging as well.  Entrepreneurship increasingly revealed itself not simply as a subject, but as a common thread running through many seemingly unrelated areas of study.

People often hear the word entrepreneurship and think immediately of startups or launching companies. But entrepreneurship may be something broader. It may simply be the development of initiative, ownership, resilience, and the ability to recognize problems and create solutions.

A student studying construction may eventually become a contractor, then a project manager, and perhaps later a business owner or developer.

A student interested in technology may someday create products, manage teams, or solve problems that do not yet exist today.

A student interested in film may eventually need to understand storytelling, communication, marketing, and leadership.

Even the future shaliach increasingly benefits from understanding budgets, operations, and organizational leadership.

The specific path may differ.  But the underlying muscles being developed are often remarkably similar.

Rabbi Mayer Schmukler, founder of JETS, often frames the mission in broader terms.  “The goal was never simply to prepare a young man for a job. We want to help him discover who he is capable of becoming.”  That broader vision may be increasingly important in the world students are entering today.

Because previous generations often prepared for a relatively predictable path.  Today careers evolve constantly. Entire industries appear and disappear. Many young people will eventually work in roles that do not even exist yet.

In that environment, perhaps the greatest skill is not mastering one specific thing.  Perhaps it is developing the ability to keep learning.

“The biggest thing I learned wasn’t a specific skill” says JETS alumnus and current staff member Zalmy Chein.  “It was learning how to learn. Once curiosity wakes up, people begin teaching themselves – and eventually they want to help others do the same”

Perhaps that is the missing subject.

Not mathematics.

Not technology.

Not business.

Something sitting quietly underneath all of them.  Helping young people rediscover curiosity itself.

Because once a student genuinely wants to learn, education becomes something larger than preparation for a test or even preparation for a career.

It becomes preparation for life.

Interested in Learning More?

The ideas discussed here are part of an ongoing conversation taking place at JETS. Families interested in learning more are invited to join an online Open House on June 1, 2026 at 4:00 PM Pacific | 5:00 PM Central | 7:00 PM Eastern

For details or registration: info@jetsschool.org | WhatsApp 424-303-3006 |

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